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THE DANGERS 



DUTIES OF THE HOUR; 



AJST ADDRESS 



DELIVi.UKD AT 



CONCERT HALL, PHILADELPHIA, 



MARCH 15, 1866, 



HON. WM. D. KELLEY. 



WASHINGTON: 

CHRONICLE BOOK AND JOB PRINT. 
18GC. 



u 



Waefc. Bee. HJrt. 9©* 



i 



THE 



DANGERS AND DUTIES OF THE HOUR. 



Oaths are not an adequate foundation for go- 
vernment. All history attests this fact. A 
republic which is not sustained by the intelli- 
gent apprehemion of its vital principles, and 
their hearty acceptance by its people, is in con- 
stant danger of overthrow. When the sun 
went below the horizon on the 1st of December, 
1851, France was, under the constitution of 
184S, a Eepublic. It was Monday, the evening 
on which the President, whose inaugural oath 
bound him to maintain the Republic, held his 
reception at the Elysce. There was nothing un- 
nsual in the number or character of the guests. 
They were, probably, each in a general way 
known to the others ; bat could each have 
looked into the hearts of all, and beheld their 
secret workings, the story of the night would 
not have read as it does. The brilliant assem- 
blage embraced some of the most loyal friends 
of the Hi-public. Count de Mo ny was not seen 
by the guests who first departed. He had 
manifested his devotion to the drama, and the 
habitues of the theatres had seen him among 
them early in the evening; hut the company 
separated early, and at 11 o'clock there were but 
three guests with Louis Napokon. They were 
De Morny, Maupas, and St. Arnaud,and, at- 
tended by Colonel Beville, an orderly or subor- 
dinate officer of the President, they followed him 
to his cabinet. It was almost midnight, and 
the republic still lived. Let us contemplate its 
dying hours. It will not detain us long, for 
when the first beams of the ascending sun lit 
the spires of Paris the empire was in embryo, 
and the republic, with the preceding day, was a 
thing of the past. 

Colonel Beville was soon despatched to the 
State printing-office with a sealed packet. It 
contained the copy of proclamations wii o which 
the streets of Paris were to be placarded before 
daylight and the outgoing mails burdened. One 
of them asserted that the Assembly (the Con- 
gress of France) was a hot-bed of plots aud con- 
spiracies ; announced its dissolution, and 
placed Paris and the twelve surrounding De- 
partments under martial law. Abont 12 o'clock 
word was brought the conspirators that a bat- 
talion of gendarmie surrounded the printing- 
office, andlhat under the supervision of the Di- 
rector the overawed printers were putting the 



proclamations in type. The President executed 
letters removing his Cabinet and appointing 
Morny to the Secretaryship of the Interior. He 
had sume days before recalled from Algeria St. 
Arnaud, the John B. Floyd of France, and made 
him Minister or Secretary of War, the officer 
whose order, within the range of military 
duty, was law to the generals of the Repub- 
lic. At two o'clock St. Arnaud signed an order 
that bodies of troops which he had put und^r 
command of his corrupt partisans should oc- 
cupy the garden of the Tuileries, the Quai 
d'wrsay, the Place de la Concordi, and be so 
posted in the viciuity of the Eivsee as to protect 
its inmates if necessary. Maupas, pre.fectof the 
police, in another apartment held separate inter- 
views with a number of commissaries, and, 
under the pretext that he apprehended an arrival 
of foreign refugees made arrangements for the 
simultaneous seizure and incarceration of 
seventy-eight of the most distinguished generals, 
most trustworthy officers and members of the 
Assembly, (Congress,) and most courageous and 
most eloquent popular orators of France. 
With the execution of this order the revolution 
was accomplished. When day broke the army 
was without generals who loved the Republic 
more faithfully than Lee and Johnson love ours, 
aud the Assembly (Congress) was without the 
officers to briDg it to order or a fearless repre- 
sentative of the people to demaud that the con- 
stitution be maintained and treason made odious 
by the punishment of conspiring traitors. 

The American people need apprehend no sud- 
den ovei throw of their Government like this. 
The power of France was in Paris; it flowed 
thence to the boundaries of the Republic. It 
is not so with us; in our country it resides 
equally in every organized political community 
throughout our limits. Washington, not the 
centre of political power, is the mere focus at 
which the people's will concentrates and ex- 
presses itself. We, therefore, need not appre- 
hend a coup d'etat or sudden overthrow of the 
Government. Garrett Davis, who aptly illus- 
trates the loyalty which commends men to the 
confidence of Andrew Johnson, may, from the 
floor of the Senate, sound the temper of the 
people on the subject, and. iu accordance with 
his recorded oath, press such a suggestion upon 



?3iL3 



the President; the amnestied rebels and jubilant 
Copperheads may borrow his own seditious lan- 
guage and denounce Congress as an irresponsible 
"Central Directory," and their organs say, as 
did the Chisago Times, that 

If the rump Uona-ress shall not speedily abandon 
its sottiti 'lis, revolutionary, and lawless practices; 
if it Shall persist in excluding the representatives 
of eleven Mates fro'n their rightful seats, and in 
exe/cising tbepoweisof the Congress of the United 
States, we do w t hesitate to declare that it will 
become the solemn duty of Pres:dent Johnson to 
constitute hiaise f the (Jromwel of the time, and 
dissolve the rump by military power. 

They who defended Mrs. Surratt and 
her co-conspirators, who justified the con- 
duct of Wirz, who mourn the martyred Booth, 
and proclaim their belief that the providence, 
dark and inscrutable as it was, which transferred 
the executive power of the country from the 
hands of Abraham Lincoln was a beneficent 
one, and who are now the- familiars of his suc- 
cessor, doubtless advise him to adopt this 
course; and his many new counsellors, chosen 
from the perjured but acute leaders of the late 
rebellion, will trouble him wi'h no suggestions 
of dissent from a scheme so entirely coincident 
in purpose with the lawless aud inhuman war 
they waged against us. But this is not among 
our dangers. The President, though he is 
sometimes indiscreet, is more adroit than 
these advisers. The foundations of our 
institutions are too broad, too well apprehended, 
and too highly appreciated to permit us to con- 
sider this as a practical danger. The sources of 
our anxieties are more subtle. What we have 
to fear is not the change in the form of our go- 
vernment, but infidelity to its principles by those 
who administer it. Let me not be misunder- 
stood. I have no apprehension of serious conse- 
quences. My faith in the people knows no doubt. 
They understand their rights and will maitrai- 
the independence of the popular bra-neb. of Con- 
gress aD<t avert this danger. The intelligence of 
the American people is not the subject of idle 
declamation. Whatever may have been the im- 
pression in Europe on this point prior to Mr. 
Lincoln's proclamation of the 15th of April, 
1861, calling for seventy-five thousand troops, 
ail mm now know that the American people 
understand their institutions in general and in 
detail ; that they cherish the spirit, and are 
ready to peril pwperty and life in their defence. 
But we must not forget that tnat which violence 
and open assault cannot accomplish is some- 
time^ achieved by fraud and deception; and h er in 
is the source of all our dangers. A subtle though 
narrow hi llect, an elastic conscience, intense 
egot'sm, and the control of almost boundless 
patronage, make a combination that cannot be 
despised in any controversy. 

The love of honor or emoluments is not pecu- 
liar to the American people ; nor does it, as 
satirists, cynics, and the victims of oft recurring 
disappointment declare, spring from vanity or 
over-weaning love of self. The multiform and 
bountifully endowed charities in which our 
country pre- eminently abounds; the story of the 
Sanitary, the Christian, the Union, and the 
Freedmen's Commissions, through the hands of 
which so many tens of millions of voluntary 
contributions have flowed ; the majestic march 
of our civilization across the continent; aud the 
rapidity with which our country is interlaced 
with costly works of improvement attest the fact 
that the American people who dig and delve 
most assiduously, apply least of their gains to 
the gratification of purely selfish purposes, and 



recognize most fully the truth that man holds 
the treasures which God confides to him as trus- 
tte for his feebler fellow-men. True it is that 
base men seek place, but none will deny that 
every revered name would be stricken from the 
scroll of sages, statesmen, aud philanthropists, if 
cloubt and suspicion attached to all who have 
been willing to encounter the dangers and toils 
of public position in times of trial, and in the 
dark hours of the struggle for a great cause have 
been cheered by the hope that good men might 
love them and posterity honor their names. 

Nevertheless, the patronage of our Govern- 
ment is a power the people should estimate in 
calculating the magnitude of a contest between 
them and the Executive of the country. The 
President is the fountain of political honor. To 
him belongs the nomination of the thousands of 
officers upon our civil list, and of the army and 
the navy. His ministers control contracts in- 
volving enough millions of dollars to make them 
prizes eagerly sought by men whose counsels 
are not without weight in social and business 
circles, as well as in the political combinations 
of the day. Theagentsof the Executive traverse 
tveiy mail route, are found in the thousand post 
towns of the country, swarm in our ports of 
entry, and may be said to be omnipresent as the 
Imperial police of France, but wear no uniform 
or badt<e by which the public may be admon- 
ished that they may have a secret reason for the 
political faith they express, or are suborned 
against the public good. 

I pause to remark in this connection that this 
now is and ever will be a source of danger, and to 
add that, though President Johnson, who, when 
a member of trie Senate, proposi d in on 
session nine amendments to the Constitution, 
now regards that instrument as perfect in all its 
proportions, and deprecates the stion of an 

amendment as calcula'e! to impair its sacred- 
ness in public esteem, it will one day be tbe 
duty of the people so to modify it. as to provide 
that subordinate offices shall be held for a defi- 
nite period, and thus remove from the absolute 
control of the Executive the constantly increas- 
ing number of employees of the Government. 
When the soldiers who were wounded in follow- 
ing and maintaining the flag of our country, 
and who now, in lieu of the lucrative tra 
they abandoned for that purpose, ate holding 
e'erkships and other positions under the Go- 
vernment, have to give place to those. v;ho 
fought the great contest again.-t the supremacy 
of tuat flag, as the logic of the President's new 
position will necessitate, this point will attract 
the attention of the public, aud, until then, I 
pass it. 

The contest now prevailing is not between the 
parties indicated by the President on the 22d of 
February, when within tbe borders, if not at tbe 
heart of the enemy's country, he pointed out as 
those upon whom turbulent faction might justi- 
fiably inflict its horrors, the honored Senator 
from Massachusetts aud the brave old man 
whose indomitable courage and energy gave 
Pennsylvania, in spite of an opposing majority 
of the people, her public school system, and 
who, through a life stretching beyond the allot- 
ted three score years and ten, has never swerved 
from principle or failed to befriend the poor, the 
ignorant, the oppressed, and the otherwise 
friendless, who is venerated by all Brae men, and 
whose name will be honored by the teeming mil- 
lions of the people of our State. The people under- 
stand that controversy is not between Congress 
and the Executive, but is between the Executive 



e^ 



and themselves; the quest i >n being the mainte- 
nance of the rights of that co-ordinate branch of 
the Government through which the voice of tin- 
people is heard in the government of the nation. 
The attempt of the President is to coerce the 
popular will. Of the result I have no doubt. 
They who have involved themselves iu three 
thousand millions of debt, ami maintained fierce 
war until there was one dead iu every house, 
Will not fail now to maintain that for which they 
made these sacrifices. It is only necessary that 
the issue should be fairly stated abd fully eluci- 
dated to overwhelm him, who, in order that his 
power may be absolute during the brief term 
which, under the Constitution, he is to hold the 
reins, would subvert the principles of the Con- 
stitution. To tbat end [ propose briefly to ex- 
amine the career of the pieseut accidental Pre- 
sident of the Uoited States. 

He was for a time military governor of Ten- 
nessee, and owes his elevation to the Vice Presi- 
dency to the fact that he did not retire from the 
Senate with those with whom he had previously 
co-operated, and to his conduct aud public ut- 
terances while in that office. Though his 
earlier career had been creditable to him as a 
citizen, and had secured him the confidence of 
the people of his State, there had been nothing 
in it to attract in a special degree tbe affection- 
ate attention of the country. He had never 
borne arms iu the country's service; aud though 
vehement in declamation and much given to 
Speaking, he was not distinguished as an ora'or 
Apart from his support of the homestead bill 
his speeches and his votes were all iu the inter- 
est of what he was pleased to regard as his sec- 
tion, the slaveholding States of the country, and 
the party for which, alas, his affinities are now 
more powerful than his patriotism. Even those 
who now surround him, and to whom he gives 
his confidence, prominent among whom is our 
well-known townsman, Hon. Thomas B. Flo 
rence, can hardly have persuaded him that he 
owed his election to the Vice Presidency to these 
facts; yet he is exercising all the functions of 
his office as though duty and gratitude required 
him to look to the antecedents alone for a key to 
the wishes, purposes, and convictions of the 
people who opened the possibility of his present 
position to him; aud has not hesitated to an- 
nounce more flagrantly than John Tyler ever 
did the purpose of using the patronage of the 
Government for the promotion of his insane 
ambitlou by sajing to a citizen of Pennsylvania, 
and iu the presence of one of her representa- 
tives, that he ''nolds the offices at his disposal 
for his friends and the friends of his friends." 
Let us then refer to his conduct and rem irks 
■while Military Governor of Tennessee, iu order 
to ascertain what were the pledges upon which 
the people nominated and elected him, aud how 
far his manner of redeeming them justifies popu- 
lar confidence iu his honor aud veracity. 

During 1803 he twice visited Washington and 
conferred with many members of both houses 
of Congress on, among other topics, the neces- 
sity of repealing the clause iu the confiscation 
act, which provides that it should not "'be so con- 
strued as to work a forfeiture of the real estate 
of the offender beyond his natural life." I have 
a vivid recollection of the earnestness of his 
manner in the conference with which he honor- 
ed me. Much of his language was more forci- 
ble than elegant. I could not with propriety 
give a verbatim report of his remarks ; but this 
I may say that he pressed upon me most earnestly 
the assurance that if we permitted the war to 



close without having provided for tbe confisca- 
tion and division, bv grant, to discharged sol- 
diers, or sale, of the large landed estates of the 
a> istocracy in Tennessee, we would fail in our 
duty to the Republic and sacrifice the white 
Union men of that State as well as the frefed- 
meu. '• Sir," said he, "you cannot colli 
under that law, and if you permit th ee people 
to return aud assume the commanding social 
positiou which the possession of 'heir estates 
will give them, you will not punish a prominent 
traitor in Teuuessee, and will make it necessary 
for the Union men to abaudon their property 
and the State ; for if you attempt to try one of 
them by a jury of the vicinage he will be ac- 
quitted by sympathizing friends, aud the prose- 
cuting officer and witnesses will be huog from 
the branches of the nearest tree to the court- 
house door." I do not mention this incident 
forttae first time. The statement is doubtless 
familiar to many of you, for when, after his 
nomination, I was interrogated by earnest men 
who had learned to doubt every Southern slave- 
holder, and feared that the nomination of An- 
drew Johnson was a mistake, I answered by re- 
porting the interview, aud in my mauy addresses 
before the people duriug the campaign frequently 
referred to it. 

It were better, however, to appeal to the re- 
cord of his public acts, and, iu doing so, I shall 
coufiue my allusious to facts mentioned in a 
sketch, which, as I was the fellow-boarder of 
i s accomplished author while engaged up m it, 
I could not avoid knowing had the benefit of 
Mr. Johnson's personal supervision. 

Tne nomination of Andrew Johnson as 3Iili- 
tary Governor of Tennessee was confirmed by 
the Senate on the 5th of March, 1862, and he 
entered upon the duties of his office one week 
thereafter. One of his first official acts was to 
publish '"an appeal to the people," the follow- 
ing extract from which is a startling com- 
mentary on the doctrine announced iu his veto 
of the Freedmen's Bureau bill, which, while ad- 
mitting that it is "the unquestionable right of 
Congress to judge, each House for itself, of 
the election returns and qualifications of its own 
members," denies the right of the representatives 
of the people and the States in concurrence with 
the President to pass upon the character of the 
constitution under which such representatives 
have been chosen, aud by which States the gov- 
ernments of which have been overthrown pro- 
pose to resume their practical relations to the 
Union. " In such a lamentable crisis," said he, 
"the Government of the United States could 
not be uumiudfulof its high constitutional obli- 
gations to guarantee to every State in this Union 
a republican form of government, an obligati m 
which every Stati has a direct and immediate inte- 
reatin having observed toward every other State." 

Before the month of March had passed he 
ordered the may.ir and council of Nashville to 
take the oath of allegiance, and vacated their 
offices and sent them all to the penitentiary be- 
cause they refused to obey the order. " The 
press throughout the State," says Mr. Frank 
Moore, " was placed under proper supervision, 
and it was soou understood that spoken or writ- 
ten treason would subject the offenders to jus- 
tice. Iu April the editor of the Nashville 
Banner was arte ted and his paper suppressed." 
So heartily did Governor Johnson then seem to 
abhor treason that he arrested and imprisoned 
Judge Guild for that offence. Ou the 9th of 
May he issued a proclamation in which he re- 
cited that " persons unfriendly to the Govern- 



raent of the United States'" were "going 
at large through many of the counties 
ef the State, arresting, maltreating, aud 
plundering Union citizens, aud announced 
" that in every instance in which a Union m».ii 
is arrested and maltreated by the marauding 
bauds aforesaid, five or more rebels, from the 
mo.-t prominent in the immediate neighbor- 
hood, shall be arrested, imprisoned, aud other- 
wi-e dealt with as the nature of the case may 
require; ai d further, in "all cases where the 
property of citizens loyal to the Government of 
the United States is taken or destroyed, full and 
ample remuneration shall be made to them out 
of the property of such rebels in the vicinity as 
have sympathized with and given aid, comfort, 
information, ir encouragement to the parties 
committing such depredations." 

The people of Nashville elected a secessionist 
to the ■ffice of judge of the circuit court, and 
he gave him his commission ; " but," says his 
biographer, ''fearing that he might abuse the 
power thus vested in him, ordered his arrest, 
and sent him to the penitentiary ou the same 
dav," Time will not permit me to notice a 
tit l ie of the acts by which he effaced the suspi- 
cion that his apparent devotion to justice and 
the Union resulted from a personal contro- 
versy between him and the more aristocratic 
leaders of the Sou.h, and satistied the loyal 
people of the country that he hated treason 
because it was a crime, and would use any 
power with which they might invest him to 
punish the leaders of the rebellion, and pre- 
vent them from ever acquiring weight or influ- 
ence in the councils of the nation. Indeed, one 
cannot, when reading his remarks ac 
the nomination for Vice President, or those he 
made to the colored people of Tennessee, doubt 
thai such was for a time his own belief, for, 
as Kinglake said of another — 

It is biTieved that men do him wrong who speak 
of him as void of all idea, of truth He understood 
truth, and fa conversation be habitually preferred 
it to falsehood ; bu his truthfu ness (though not 
pei haps contrived for such an end,) sometimes be 
cam i n means of decep ion, be. ause, after gene- 
rating coufldenee, it would suddenly breakdown 
and he pressure of a strong motive He cuuld 
maintain friendly relations with a m m, and speak 
frankly and truthfully to him for seven ye ts, and 
then suddenly d«ce've him Of course, men find- ' 
Ing themselves ensnared by what had appeared to 
be honesty in his character, we e naturally in- 
clined to believe that eve: y semb ance 01 a good 
quality was a nask; but it is more consistent with 
the principles of hum?n nature to believe that a 
truthFuloess continuing for seven years was a 
genuine remnant of virtue than that it was a 
meie preparation for fa'sehood. 

Let me, in this connection, briefly remind you 
how explicit he was when acceptiug the nomi- 
nation by some extracts from his address : 

Th« question is whether man Is capab'e of self- 
government I hold, with Jefferson, that govern- 
ment was made for tho convenience of man, and 
not man for government. Ttie laws and constitu- 
tions were designed as instruments to promote nib 
welfare. And hence, frim this principle, I cone ude 
that governments can and ought to be changed 
and amended to conform to the wants to the re- 
quirements and progress of the people, and tho 
enlightened spirit of the age. * * * * 

Ano let me say that now is the time to secure 
these futd,. mental principles, while the la*sd is 
rent with anarchy and upheaves with the throes ot 
a wigh.y revolution. While society is in this dis- 
ordered state, and we pre seeking security, let us 
nx the foundations of the Government on princi- 
ples of eternal justice which will endure for all 
time. 



Again : 

But in calling a convention to restore the 
state, who shall restore and re-establish it 1 Shall 
the man who gave his influence and his me ins to 
deotroy the Government] Is he to particlpa e in 
the great work of reorganization! Shall In- who 
brought this misery upou toe Mate be peru itted 
to control its destinies ! If this be so, then :illlhis 
precious b;ood of our brave soldiers and officers so 
freely poured out will nave been wantonly spilled. 
All the glorious victories won by our noble armies 

| will go for naught, and all the battle-fields whieh 
havebeen sown with dead heroes during the re- 

j hellion will htve been made memorable in vain. 
Why all this carnage and devastation? It 
was 'hat treason might he put down and t.aitors 
punished. Therefore 1 sav that traitors should 

I take a back seat in the work of restoration If 
there be hut five thousand men in Tenncssea loyal 
to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to jus- 

| tiee. these true and faithful men should c ntrolthe 

[ work of reorganization and reformation absolute- 
ly. I say tuat the traitor has ceased to be a citi- 
zen, and in joining the reoellion has become a 
publicenemy He forfeited his light to vote with 
loyal men v hen he renounced his citizenship and 
sought to destroy our 'rovernment. We say to 
the~most honest and industrious foreigner who 
comes from tngland or Germany to dwell among 
us, and to add to the wealth of the country, ' He- 
fore you can be a citizen you must stay here for 
five years. " It ne are so cautious about f ix-ian- 
ers, who voluntarily renounce their homes to live 
with us, what s iould we say to the traitor who, 
although born and reared among us, has raised a 
parricidal hand against the Government wuich 
always protected him? My judgment is that ho 
should be subjected to a severe orde< 1 before ho is 
res ored to citizenship. A fellow who takes the 
oath merely '-o save his property, and denies the 
validiiy of the oath, is a perjured man, and not to 
be t-usted. Before these repenting rebels can be 
trusted let them bring forth the fruits of repent- 
ance. Me who helped to make all these widows 
and orphans— who draped the streets of Nashville 
in mourning — should suffer for his great crime. 
The work is in our own hands. 

And again : 

Ah! these rebel leaders have a strong personal 
reasm lor holding out, to save their necKS from 
the halter; and these leaders must feel the po^er 
of (he Government ! Treason must be made odious, 
and trauars mu l be punished anu impoverished. 
Tneir great plantations must be seized, and di- 
vided into sn»li farms, and sold to honest, in ius- 
trious men The day for protecting the lands and 
negroes of ihese authors of reoellion is past. It is 
niah time it was. I have been most deeply pained 
at some things which have come under my obser- 
vation. We get men in command who, und-r the 
Influence of flat ery, fawning, and care -sing, 
grant protection to the rich traitor, while the poor 
Union m.;n sands out in the cold, often unaole to 
get a receipt or a voucher for his losses. Thetr itor 
can get Iuerative contracts, while the loyal man is 
pushed a ide, unable to obtain a recognition. 

But time flowed on, and as the election ap- 
proached he became more emphatic. It was to 
be held the 9th of November, and on the eve- 
ning of the 24th of October the colored people of 
Nashville and the vicinity paraded in great uum- 
berSj bearing lurches, transparencies, and ban- 
ners, aud Governor Johnson found it convenient 
to meet and address them. War was still fla- 
grant, and the Southern aristocracy were Dot to 
be represented in the Electoral College, the 
members of which were to vote for him or Mr. 
Pendleton as Vice Presideut. But the people of 
the North, who believed that justice, equal and 
exact justice to all, was the only sign by which 
the rebellion could be conquered, would vote. 
He bad bpeu a Democrat and a Blavebo'der, and 
wao then penetrated with the belief he ha- siuce 
expressed, that the Radicals in the convention 
had opposed his nomination on that account. 
It is possible that this knowledge may have in- 



duced him, eagerly ambitious and familiar with 
political quantities as he was, to make the ad- 
dress, or have given tone to his remarks. But 
be that as it may, it is certain that his words 
were not cold and contemptuous as those which, 
as President, he uttered to the few returning 
braves who represented a regiment that had 
been thrice recruited because it had been thrice 
decimated in battle. But let him speak for him- 
Belf. "Negro equality, indeed,'* cried he; "why 
pass any day along ihe sidewalk of High street, 
where these ari-tocrats more particularly dwell — 
these aristocrats whose sous are now in the 
bands of guerillas and cutthroats who prowl 
and rob and murder around our city — pass by 
tbe<',- d wellings, I say, and you will see as many 
mulatto as negro children, the former bearing 
an unmistaka ile resemblance to their aristo- 
cratic owners. Col< red men of Tennessee, this, 
too. shall cease. Your wives aDd daughters 
shall uo longer he dragged into a concubinage, 
compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy 
the brutal )u-ts of slaveholders and overseers. 
1 sanctity of God's ho'y law of 
marriage shall he respected in your persons, ami 
the great State of Tennessee shall co more give 
her sanction to your degradation and your 
shame." And having in langu ge which you all 
remember promised to be their Moses, he added: 
I spe^k now as one who feel-! the world his 
couDtiy : ml all who I ire equal rights his friends. 
I speak, 'on, 9 s a citizen of Tennessee I am 
here on mv own soil ; and here 1 nitan to stay and 
fight this battle of troth and justice to a tri- 
umphant end Rebellion and slavery shall, by 
God's good help, no longer pollute our State. 
Loyal men, whether white or blank, shall alone 
control her destinies; and when this strife in 
which we are all engaged is past, I trust. T Unow, 
we shall have abetter state of things, and shall 
all 'ej dee that honi st l ibor reap 5 the fru.t ol i s 
own industry and 'hat e^ery man has a fair 
chance in the race of l'fe. 

How faithless this man, who now claims the 
confidence of his abused fellow-citizens, has 
been to all these pledges, let that unfaltering 
patriot, Wm. G-. B own low, Governor of Ten- 
nessee, tell. I have a letter from him, written 
just one wet k ago. It is a fearful commentary 
on the untrns' worthiness of this man's most 
sacred pledgee. That you may hear exactly 
what he says I read it all, from date to signature : 

Executive Department, 
Nashville, MarchS, 1866. 
Hon Wm 0. Kelley, House of Representatives : 

Dear Sir: Enclosed I send youacopyof 1117 
proclamation, from which you will learn' that a 
faction of twenty- one dtoorganizers have, in the 
true spirit of the late iniquitous rebellion, with- 
drawn, and red'iceu our House of Representatives 
below a quorum I need not add further remarks, 
as the proclamation fully discusses the points at 
Issue. 

Hn Friday last, the election of county officers 
took place throughout the State, such as clerks, 
sheriff-', justices, trustees, and tax col'ectors, and 
in Middle and West Tennessee ti>e rebels have 
made a clenn sweep, turning the TTnion men ou r and 
elecung their own candidates, who electioneered 
for office on I he. (round that they Ware ebels, and 
bad either served in the rebel army or id some 
other capacity had given their influence to the 
cause of treason and traitors. 

When Richmond fell and T.ee surrendered, 
rebels, and many who sympathized with them, 
were very respectful to Union men, often obsequi- 
ous— guilty culprits, they evidently feared arrest 
and punishment, and felt that to b* let alone and 
allowed to live was all they had a right to expect. 
But, since paidonshave been so multiplied, ar 1 
no man has heen punished, they have everywhere 
become impud°nt and defiant, until. In most coun- 
ties in Middle and west Tennessee it is disreputa- 
ble to have been a Union man, or, as a Southern 



man, to have served in the Union army. And 
matters are growing worse; the reconstructed 
traitors openly cursing loyal men. and threaten- 
ing tint they have the President on their side, 
while we all teel that the President's policy is 
ruinous to us. 

When I put the President in nomination at Bal- 
timore for the Vice Presidency. I felt that he had 
so thoroughly committed himself to t e Union 
cause, and had been so badly treated by the rebels, 
it was i npossible for him ever to get round lo them 
again; but I give him up as lost to the Union 
party, and as the man who is to head the *eoeiS 
and Democrats. Every rebel in all tios eonn*ry, 
every AlcClellan man, and every ex-guerilla chief 
are loud and enthusiastic in praise of the Presi- 
dent. 1 he men who b*it a few months since, were 
cursing him ior on abolitionist and traitor, and 
wishing him executed, are now for executing all 
who dare to oppose his policy, or even doulK its 
succe s. 

There is twice the amount of bitterness and in- 
tolerance in the ~-outh, t>da$, toward the Uoion 
and everything Northern than there was at the 
time of Lee's surrender. Abuse of Union men, of 
the radicals in Congress, and self-assumed supe- 
riority on the part of the southern chivalry have 
arisen to such a height that loy il men earnot 
travel on a steamboat or in a railroad car without 
being insulted. As it w is during the w r so it is 
now, all concessiors from the No-th, or from the 
majority in Congress, are regarded as evidences of 
fear; all the olo rebel papers ofisil and many 
new ones, areinfu'l blast, threatening Congress 
and the North with ultimate vengeance ^nd 
boasting of Southern prowess Them st popular 
men in the largest portion of Teiiuessee. to dav, 
are the men m st distinguished for their hostility 
to the North, and what" they are pleased to call 
the ''Radical Congress, " and they are the class 
of men who are selected to fill offices, as the late 
county elections show. The same Is true of the 
entire South, only more so! In a wore, they are 
resolved on breaking up the G-overi ienr, a 1 
they expect to curry out their schemes ihrout '< the 
ballot-box, and now men of candor am) i e ti en se 
can represent them as loyal and kindly-disposed 
is a mystery to me, even in this age of re 
and treachery. I do not understand them, and 
my opportunities for learning their temper ami 
ultimate purposes are as good as those of most 
men. 

Why, sir, many of them are expecting the Presi- 
dent to disperse Congress with the bayonet, as 
Cromwell dispersed the Long Parliament. 'Ihe 
Southern heart is rapidly being fired to deeds of 
war, and ail this, aDd more, as I believe, has been 
occasioned bv the mis, ikes of the Presidf 

His plan of trusting rebe's with their State go- 
vernments has had an effect exactly the opposite 
of what he intended It. has ruined the prospects 
of the Union men, and they feel that there is no 
safety fur them, unless Congress shall choose to 
protect 'hem. Even tlree days ago irtneral 
Thomas had to send troops into Marshall county, 
some sixty miles distant, to protect loval men and 
f^eedmen who were fleeing lor safety and coming 
to this city. 

So far as I am individually concerned the in- 
temperate abuse of re- els, the denuncia' ion and 
blackguardism of their reconstructed journals, the 
threats of personal violence from their amnestied 
patriots, and the anonymous letters of cowards 
threatening my assassination all fall harmless at 
mv feet. No earthly power can drive me from the 
support of the men and party who fought the bat- 
tles of the lato w r and put down the rebellion. 

With kind recollections of the past, and the hope 
of a pleasant future, W G. Brownlow, 

Governor of Tennessee. 

In view of the statements of Governor Brown- 
low, and its corroborations borne to us by every 
mail from the S >uth, may I not inquire whether 
Andrew Johnson is in his true place, "if 
traitors should take a back seat in the work of 
restoration?" In view of his perfidious aban- 
donment of the TTnion men of the Sou' b, do not 
his denunciations of Congress remind you of 
Louis Napoleon's cry that the Congress of 
France had become a hot- bed of plots and con- 



spiracies ? And has he, under the tuition of 
his new friends, been studying the history of 
revolutionary France, that he denounces the 
joint Committee on Reconstruction, composed 
as it is of fif.een of the purest statesmen of the 
country, as an irresponsible Central Directory? 
That phrase recalls to miud the incidents of toe 
18th Brumaire. He should have known his 
countrymen better than to have referred to sueh 
an example! 

On the ISth Brumaire, the executive power 
of France was in a Central Directory. The con- 
dition of the country, as we find it in Thiers, 
reminds us of that of the unhappy South. He 
says, after referring to the victories of Mt. 
Tabor and Aboukir, "The greatest perils were 
not without, but within. The disorganized 
government, unruly parlies which would not 
submit to authority, and which, nevertheless, 
were not strong enough to possess themselves 
of it — a kind of social dissolution everywhere, 
and robbery, a sign of that dissolution, infesting 
the high-roads, especially in provinces formerly 
torn by civil war — su.:h was the state of the 
republic." 

When, on the ISth of October, Napoleon, fresh 
from the expedition to Syria, found his way se- 
cretly to his home in the Rue Chantereine, his 
first visit was to the president of the. Directory, 
Gohier, with whom he arranged that he should 
be presented to the Directory the next day. 
After his preseuta ion, he addressed the su- 
preme magistrate. Appealing to their gratitude 
by referring to his past services, less directly, 
but more elegantly, than is. the habit of our 
President, he said " that, after consolidating 
the establishment of his armies in Egypt by the 
victories of Mount Tabor and Aboukir, and 
committing the charge of it to a general quali- 
fied to insure its prosperity, he had left it to 11 v 
to the succor of the Republic, which he believed 
to be undone. He had found it saved by the 
exploits of brethren iu arms, and in this he re- 
joiced." "Never," he added, clapping his 
band to his sword, "never would he draw it 
but in defence of that Republic." 

The leaders of all the parties of France 
visited him in turn. "Two principal parlies," 
says Thiers, "and a third, a subdivision of the 
two others, offered themselves to him, and were 
disposed to serve him if he adopted their views. 
These were known as the patriots, the moderates, 
and, lastly, the pourris, as they w re called, the 
rotten of all times and of all factions." The 
pourris were the French equivalent of the Tvler 
party, and are now represent d by those office- 
holders who, having been fierce Republicans, 
proclaim themselves the fii'-nds "of Andrew 
Johnson and a white man's Government." 
When referring to thf.ni Thiers says "the 
pourris, the rotten, were all the rogues, all the 
intriguers, who were striving to make their 
fortune, who had dishonored themselves in 
making it, and wno wtre still bent on making 
it at the same price. These followed Barras 
and Fouche, the minister of police. Among 
them were men of ail sorts — jacobins, mode- 
rates, and 'a royalists." The never-to-be-for- 
gotten mo •:• . ■• front of the Executive Man- 
sion on the ;::i{ of February confirms most 
strikingly the fact that history not ouly repeats 
itself, but doi s ii ith aceuracy of detail, it is 
said that "Bonaparte felt a horror of the turbu- 
lent and a disgust of the corrupt." He there- 
fore shrunk from personal contact with the 
pourris, and repulsed them until their leaders 
became absolutely necessary to his purposes. 



"Meanwhile," says Allison, "in his s> cret 
intercourse with the different leaders, Napoleon 
was indefatigable in his endeavors to disarm all 
opposition. Master of the most profound dis- 
simulation, he declared himself to the chiefs of 
the different parties penetrated with the ideas 
which Me was aware would be most acceptable 
to their minds. To one he protested that he 
certainly did desire to play the part of Wash- 
ington, but ouly in conjunction with Sieves — 
the proudest day of his life would be that when 
he retired from power; to another, that t lie part 
of Cromwell appeared to him ignoble, because 
it was that of animposter; to the lriendsof 
aieyes he professed himself impressed with the 
most profound respect for that, mighty intellect, 
before which the genius of Mirabeau had pros- 
trated itself; that, lor his own part, he could only 
head the armies, and leave to others the forma- 
tion of the constitution. To all the Jacobins 
who approached him he spoke of the extinction 
of liberty, the tyranny of the Directory, and used 
terms which sufficiently recalled the famous 
proclamation which had given the Srsl impulse to 
the revolution of the ISth Fructidor." He pub- 
licly ordered a review of the troops for the morn- 
ing of the ISth Brumaire, after which he would, 
be said, set off to take command of the army on 
th; frontier. 

Thus he perfected his plan for the over- 
throw of the Republic. At daybreak of the 
9ih of November, known as the 18th Bru- 
maire, the Boulevards were filled with a splen- 
did body of cavalry, and all the generals in Paris 
repaired in full dress to the Rue Chantereine. 
To lull the suspicions of the President of the 
Directory, B maparte had announced to him 
familiarly that he would dine with him on that 
day. The leaders of the Deputies of the An- 
cients, in pursuance of a conspiracy, had deter- 
mined to announce at the openingol the session 
that the republic was in danger, but to allay the 
fears of the uncorrupted members by assuring 
them that it would be saved by the protecting 
arm of Gtnevl Bonaparte. On the arrival of 
the unusual hour at which the meeting had 
been called, the president of the commission 
chargi d with watching over the legislative body 
opened the proceedings. "The Republic," said 
he, "is menaced at once by the anarchists and 
the enemy; we must instantly take measures 
for the public safety. We may reckon on the 
support of General Bonaparte. It is under the 
shadow of his protecting arm that the Councils 
must deliberate on the measures required by the 
i- of the Republic." The speaker de- 
clared debate, or remonstrance to be out of 
- i ler. md the decree was adopted. Thescldiers, 
who believed, a* did the people, that they had 
been ordered out for review, surrounded the 
II »11 of the Ancients, and Bonaparte, attended 
by Moreau, Micdonald, Berthier, Murat, Lan- 
nes, Marmont, and Lefebvre entered, and pro- 
ceeded to the bar of the Hall of the Aucients. 

All -r a moment's pause, Bonaparte said: 
"Citizen Representatives, the Republic was 
about to perish, when you saved it ; woe to 
those who shall attempt to oppose your decree; 
aided by my brave companions in arms, I will 
speedily crush them to the earth. You are 
the collected wisdom of the nation; it is for 
you to point out the measures which may save 
it. I come, surrounded by all the generals, to 
oiler you the support of their arms I name 
Lefebvre my lieutenant. I will faithfully dis- 
charge the duty you have entrusted to me. 
Let none seek iu the past examples to- -regu- 



late the present. Nothing in history has any 
resemblance to the close of the eighteenth 
century; nothing in the eighteenth century 
resembles this moment. We are resolved to 
have a Republic; we are resolved to have it 
founded on true liberty and a representative 
system. I swear it in my own name and in 
that of my companions in arms." From the 
moment in which be uttered that hollow oath 
till that of his downfall the story of Bonaparte 
was the history of the French Government. 
The perjury freighted breath of him who swore 
to protect the Republic had killed it. The 
power which enabled Bonaparte to destroy the 
Republic he thus swore to protect was dissimu- 
lation ; the essential agency was the success 
with which he impressed the chiefs of the dif- 
ferent parties with the belief that he was con- 
trolled by the ideas in which they had faith. 
From history or his own experience, Andrew 
Johnson has learned that dissimulation alone 
will enable him to execute his purposes. To 
have appealed to the persuasive pow< j r of pa- 
tronage immediately upon assuming ofine would 
have awakened suspicion, aDd he is too expe- 
rienced and crafty a politician for that. He 
knew that the allies of the rebels were in a 
hopeless minority in the North, and that to 
restore the old order of things — a united South 
and a divided North— he must secure a mea- 
sure of popular confidence before he disclosed 
his purposes even to the pourris. It was by 
professing fidelity to the Republics of 1793 
and 184S that the Bonapartes were able to over- 
throw them. And his purpose is to put this 
country into the hands of the impenitent rebels 
of the South by professing to adhere to the 
Union party till he shall have divided its coun- 
sels and wrought its overthrow. In April last, 
while the loyal heart of the North throbbed 
with indignation, hed'd not denounce the radi- 
ces, or insist upon it that "we must repose con- 
fidence in somebody, and ought to trust the 
people of the South." To a delegation of loyal 
Southerners, he then said : 

But if asked what should be done with the a°?a?- 
Sin, what shoul i be tha penalty— the forfeit ex- 
acted Iknow what response dwells in every bosom 
It is that he should pay the forteic with his life 
And hence we see there are times when mi 
clemency, witf, e, become a crime. * * • * 

And so I return to where L started from, and again 
repeat that It is time our people were taught to 
know that treason is a crime, Lot a mere political 
difference, nor amereconiest between two par- 
ties, in vhieh one succeeded and the other has 
simnly failed. Tbey must know it is treison ;for, 
if then had succeeded, the life of the nation would 
have been reft from it, the Union would have been 
destroyed. Surely f e Cocstitution sufficiently 
defines treason. It consists in lovyiLg war against 
the United States, arid in giving their enemies 
aid and comfort. With, this definition itreqrpes 
the exercise cf n:> great acumen to ascertain who 
are traitors. It requires no great perception to 
tell who have levied warag tinst the United States; 
nor does it require any great stretch of reasoning 
to ascertain vbo has given aid to the enemies of 
the United States; and when the Government or" 
the United States does ascertain who are the con- 
scious and intelligent traitors, the penalty and the 
forfeit should be paid. 

If mercy without justice be a crime, who shall 
absolve Andrew Johnson from the consequen- 
ces of his great transgression? Has he the 
acumen to discover who have been traitors? 
And is not that mercy without justice which, in 
violation of the express provisions of law, has re- 
stored to bloody-handed traitors immense landed 
estates, the titles to which were absolutely 
vested in the United States, and, therefore, be~- 



yo-d bis lawful control ? Tested by his ovn 
standards you may be disposed to ask wherein 
his guilt differs from that of the "stern states- 
man-' whose exultation at the triumph of 
his beloved South is for yet a little while re- 
strained by the strong walls of Fortress Monoe? 
But let us not hasten to conclusions. The sub- 
dued tones of his voice and the ! road generali- 
ties in which he cloaks his designs still deceive 
some patriotic people. They have not sounded 
the shoals and depths of a native like his. Let 
me, rapidly as I can, for your patience must 
weary, illustrate his methods for overthrowing 
the party that maintained the war and conquered 
bis rebellious section. 

Bold as partial success has made him, he 
still, in his public addresses, speaks of loy- 
alty, end in his ct lebrated interview with the 
representatives of the Legislature of recon- 
structed Virginia, which occurred the dav after 
be had exhibited himself in such painful 
contrast with the representatives of the "in- 
ferior race" whom he had honored with an in- 
terview, he insisted that none but loyal men 
must be admitted to the councils of the nation. 
It is, however, fortunate for the countrythat he 
is less reticent than Bonaparte, or not. so excel- 
lent a reader of the hearts of men, or that our 
more popular Government constrains a more 
frequent expression of opinion, for he has en- 
abled us to understand the significance with 
winch be uses the word loyal, and the popular 
phrases by which be hopes to delude and d vide 
the people of the North. 

Having at that time faith in h ; s i,; ?grity, and 
being auxious to lend him .any aid I could >n the 
•nofthehigh cKjuiesr confided to him I 
once filled the role pe. forced hy .Major George 
L. Stearns, and mjQre rec> ■ ;\ error Cox, 

of Ohio. It had been n: - pnvi.W • to j a*s ao 
hour in close and friendly 'i'.u- .-coins, with him 
in the ante room to the Executive chamber, in 
the early partof t'i a rooajn pf IpVil last, on the 
occasion of the laWcBll I ksis permitted to make 
on Abraham Lincoln. 

During that interview he referred very kindly 
to my speech in favor of universal suffrag 
requested another copy, saying he had mislaid 
the oue he bad read with so much pleasure, and 
wished it that he might refer to some of the au- 
thorities cited. When I next saw him he was 
President of the United Bta es, but bad not 
taken up his abode in the Executive Mansion. 
Having arrived in Washington in the evening, I 
delayed my call upon him till tbenext morniog, 
and having heard that Senator Sumner bad 
had a protracted interview with him that 
day, with General Gantt, of Arkansas, I went 
to his room, where I found General Carl 
Schurz, fresh from North Carolina and the 
surrender of Johnston's army. He had. as 
you remember, commanded a division of the 
conquering army in its wonderful march 
through the enemy's country, and was still in 
commission. Senator Sumner detailed the 
points the President and he bad discussed, 
and we parted with mutual congratulation's 
that the Presidential office wa« in the hands of 
one who abhorred treason, was determined to 
punish traitors, and who, being familiar with 
the ignorance and degradation of the poi 
whites of the South, knew how gnrvn ' lytbev 
had been misled, and was therefore capable 
of pardoning them. We were gratified to be 
assured that he did not diff-r with us upon the 
necessity of availing ourselves, in the r orga- 
nization of the South, nf the political power of 



10 



the loyal people of that section without regard 
to lineage or past prejudices, as we had availed 
ourselves of their miliary power in the extreme 
exigency of the country. 

Accompanied by General Gantt, I waited 
upon President Johnson the next morning at his 
residence in the uiiueiou of the Hon. Samuel 
Hooper, of Massaehnsf tts. Our interview was 
satisfactory, but, chiefly so in this : That the 
point on which the President was most clear was, 
that there must be no na^e in the work of recon- 
struction ; that time was our ablest ally ; that 
these people having overthrown their govern- 
ment must be permi ted to feel the want of go- 
vernment, and to suffer from its want, that, they 
might be brought to comprehend the true foun- 
dations of just government. It was in his 
judgment — for the question of the possibility of 
a called session of Cougress was incidentally 
touched on — fortunate that Congress did not 
meet at an earlier day, for in the interim we 
would be able to ascertain the true spirit of the 
people of the South ; ihey would discover and 
appreciate the just demands of those who had 
maintained the Government, and we wonM all 
be better able to judge how far the newly-eman- 
cipated citizens could be trusted with political 
power. 

The point specially pressed by General Gantt 
was the agency through which argument, per- 
suasion, and information could be presented to 
the people of the rebellious district. The here- 
sies which had produced the rebellion could 
thus, in his judgment, soon be eradicated. 
These, he said, were two: The doctrine of State 
sovereignty or the right of seceseion, and the 
doctrine, of slavery— 1 1 1 e right of man to hold 
property tti man ; and he buygested to the Pre- 
sident that whOe military power was maintained 
it was clearly ritbm the limits of constitutional 
power to suppress any paper which maintained 
these doctrines within the conquered States. 
Especially <n( he proneet against permitting any 
editor who had taugnt iv si heresies and stimt\~ 
lated the people to retielliou to preside over a 
paper within auy military district The Presi- 
dent assented very distinctly to the correctness 
of the General's views, saying that nothing 
could be more important than that the press 
throughout that region should be conducted in 
the in tei est of the Government, but in such a 
manner as not. to wound the sensibilities of the 
people. He hoped, however, it would not be 
necessary to exercise such a power. Our inter- 
view was not disagreeable to the President, for, 
remarking that the time had come when he ought 
to be in the room which he occupied as an Ex- 
ecutive chamber — a room in the Treasury — he 
suggested that we should precede him, and say 
to his messenger that he had directed us to 
come and await him. We did so, and in 
a few minutes lie joined us. Our conversa- 
tion soon closed, and as we departed from 
the Presidential presence General Schurz was 
ushered in. There was great anxiety at that 
time to ascertain the President's views on the 
leadir g topics of consideration. The continued 
kindness of my constituents had given me some 
prominence before the country. I was then, as 
I am very proud to be to-day, known as a radi- 
cal, and on returning to the hotel was 6ur- 
ronnded by a number of the intelligent gentle- 
men who represent the newspaper press of the 
country at its capital, and whose anxiety and 
laborious efforts to sift and compare statements 
and rumors that they may truly inform the 
readers of the respective journals with which 



they communicate is too lightly esteemed. 
They would gladly have learned from me all 
the points discussed, and the precise shade of 
the President's opinion. But the time at my 
disposal was too brief for that. I could only 
say that the interview had been entirely satis- 
factory to me. One of the gentlemen said to 
me that it would give a good deal of informa- 
tion to many people if I would permit them to 
say very briefly what I had said to them, and, 
drawing his pencil, wrote: "Judge Kelley, of 
Pennsylvania, had a protracted interview with 
the President to-day, and is entirely satisfied 
with his views and purposes," which was read 
the next day by the readers of all the papers 
with which the Associated Press communicates. 

The next day t was giving an elaborate report 
of the conversation to some members of the 
Union League of this city, among whom I re- 
member were Messrs. George H. Boker, Lindley 
Smyth, and Thomas Webster Some of my 
hearers evidently doubted that there could be 
such entire coincidence between ray well-known 
views and those of the President as I repre- 
sented. Happily, General Schurz arrived at the 
moment, and 1 withdrew from the conversation 
by saying, "General, be good eu>u2h to confirm 
or contradict some statements I have just made 
by letting these gentlemen know the President's 
expressed opinions on certain points, for your 
interview with him was a few minuses later 
than mine." He did so, and confirmed my alle- 
gations at all points. 

I hid other interviews with Mr. Johnson, and 
had no reason to doubt his frankness or his can- 
dor. You may, therefore, readily imagine the 
amazement with which I read of the appoint- 
ment of a Provisional Governor for North 
Carolina, and the terms of the proclamation 
accompanying the appointment. I pissed the 
first week of June in Boston, in attendance upon 
the anniversary meetings, two or three of which 
I was to address. The North Carolina move- 
ment occasioned the friends of the Government 
in that quarter much anxiety, and I found plea- 
sure in laying before them the evidence at my 
command that the President had not acted un- 
advisedly; that he was in harmony with them; 
thai be did mean to make treason odious, and 
punish traitors; that this movement was only 
experimental; that he was not goi''g to arrogate 
to him.-elf the functions of the legislative 
branch of the Government; that be did mean 
that the reconstructed States must be put upon 
the broad basis of the rights of man, protected 
by due constitutional guarantees; and in per- 
suading them to believe with me that, the Presi- 
dent was anxious for the extension of the right 
of suffrage to all, the diffusion of schools, the 
maintenance of a free press, and the establish- 
ment of truly democratic republican govern- 
ments throughout the South. In such viola- 
tion of all the opinions he had expressed to me 
was this action that I was persuaded he acted on 
assuranc s that by leaving all questions to the 
people of North Carolina, as he was doing, they 
would of their own volition (at least apparently 
so) frame a government which woual be ac- 
ceptable to Congress and the sentiment of the 
country, and be an example to all the rest of 
the States whose governments had been over- 
thrown. 

Immediately after my return home I repaired 
to Washington to receive these assurances from 
his own lips. I mentioned my Boston expe- 
riences to him, and the pleasure it had given 
me to explain his motives and prevent unjust 



11 



criticism. He did me the honor, for which I spe- i 
daily thank him no w,to inquire the grounds upon | 
which I had rented my arguments. I referred i 
him to his continued advocacy of the home- j 
Btead bill — to the energy with which he had 
pressed upon me the necessity of breaking up the 
large landed estates of Tennessee and the entire 
South. I recurred to his pledge to the co- 
lored people of the country in his Nashville 
speech that he would be their Moses to lead 
them to liberty, and specially pressed the 
fact that I had seen it announced that he bad 
suggested to a deputation of colored citizens of 
the District that had waited upon him, that tin y 
should be prepared, when Congress assembled, 
to memorialize it for the right of suffrage in the 
District. He did not then suggest, nor indeed 
has he ever to me, as his friend, Colouel Flo- 
rence, assured the readers of the Constitutional 
Union he has to others, that no such deputa- 
tion ever waited on him or received such sug- 
gestion from him. But, thanking me for this 
evidence of my friendship, inquired who 
the common friend was to whom I had alluded 
as coinciding with me in judgment. When I in- 
formed him tbatit was Major George L. Stearns 
who had been with him in Nashville for a long 
time recruiting colored troops, he said with 
much animation. "Oh, yes, Major Stearns; I 
am not surprised to learn that he should under- 
stand me thoroughly as you do." Again assur- 
ing me of the earnestness with which he would 
advocate the extension of suffrage to her colored 
citizens, were he in Tennessee, he said the peo- 
ple would soon learn that the same man in dif- 
ferent positions might have different duties to 
perform, and that while he would give all his 
personal influence to promote the extension of 
suffrage, he did not feel that he had a right, as 
chief Executive officer of the country, to force 
it upon even the p>.ople of the rebellious States, 
and added that he wished the people to be made 
to understand these things. 

Accepting the "' request of the monarch as a 
command to the subject," I made it my busi- 
ness immediately on my return home to state 
the President's position to the conductors of all 
our journals with whom I had any acquaintance, 
and, a few weeks later, was much pained to 
learn from at least one of them that I had 
somewhat impaired my reputation as a compe- 
tent reporter of a conversation, bv the fact that 
the position I had announced the President as 
occupying had been expressly disavowed. You 
may, therefore, imagine the pleasure with which 
I some mouths later carried to that gentleman 
the printed letter of Major Stearns, endorsed by 
the President, containing a correct statement 
of a conversation had between them, in the 
course of which he had used precisely the lan- 
guage I had, months before, reported him as 
having used to me. It may not be improper to 
remark in passing that it is well for the Major's 
sensibilities that, he got the President to endorse 
his statement before he published it, as I heard 
him remark the other day, to a group of gentle- 
men, that Mr. Johnson had falsified, without 
exception, evtry assurance he had given him in 
the course of their protracted interview. 

But why should you be amazed at this? Has 
he redeemed any one of his public pledges, and 
•re there not scores of gentlemen whom he has 
thus entrapped or alienated I On the 28th of 
September last. Senator Wilson addressed the 
Union men of Philadelphia in National Hall, 
and told them that on the preceding day the 
President had assured him that the suffrage and 



other questions were, in his opinion, open for 
discussion within the pary, and that he would 
not discriminate between its members on ac- 
count of the opinions they might express on 
points not settled by the Baltimore Convention. 
On the 3d of October, within a we k, as we are 
assured by those gentlemen, he iuformed Messrs. 
Glenni W. Schofield and Morrow B. Lowry, of 
this State, that his policy was fixed, that he had 
not told Mr. Wilson that he did not mean to 
support his policy by the influence of his patron- 
age, and that he " expected the radicals to 
slough off." But why trace so tortuous 
and shameless a course. Could I do so 
with safety to my country, I would gladly 
strive to bury in o >livion the uublushing tergi- 
versations of our Chief Magistrate. But the 
people should understand their President's char- 
acter and purposes, for it is against themselves 
that he is endeavoring to excite them. He 
would make them believe that Congress — the 
people's branch of the Government — which is 
surrendered into their hands at the end of every 
sec nd year, has for sinister purposes submitted 
itself to the control and leadership of a few 
dangerous men, and that he alone represents 
the popular will. To the public this is a new 
cry. To individuals it is an older story. He 
would make the people believe that there has 
been that in the action of Congress which was 
intended to embarrass him. But individuals 
know how ingeniously and persistently he has 
sought to impair popular confidence in those 
Senators and Representatives upon whom Ab- 
raham Lincoln turned with most implicit con- 
fidence ; and that so early as July, when he 
had been but three months in office, he shocked 
an eminent divine, whose good offices he had 
invoked, by saying that '"he held the extreme men 
of the North as responsible for the war as he did 
those of the South, and intended to organize a 
party that would exclude both." Though he 
had thus early adopted this design, it was not 
till last month that he publicly avowed the pur- 
pose of punishing Northern Radicals and putting 
them down as we had put down the armed trai- 
tors of the South. Mississippi was the State of 
the Union that had the smallest percentage of 
colored men who could read and write, or owned 
real estate, and it was to the pardoned traitor, 
whom he calls Governor of Mississippi, that, on 
the 15th of August, he privately telegraphed the 
way to play a little trick by which to embarrass 
the Radicals and divide the Union party. I make 
the following extract from his official despatch 
to Hon. L. Sharkey of that date : 

If you could extend the elective franchise to all 
persons of color who can read the (Joottitution of 
the United States in English, and write their 
names, and to all persons of color who own real 
estate valued at not less than $250, and pay taxes 
thereon, wou would eomplately disarm the adver- 
sary, and set an example the other States will 
follow. This you cen do with perfect safety, and you 
thus place the Southern states, in reference to 
free persons of color, upon the same basis with tne 
free states 1 hope and trust your convention 
will do this, and, as a consequence the Kadicals, 
who are wild upon negro franchise, will be com- 
pletely foiled in their attempts to keep the South- 
ern States from renewing their relations to the 
Union by not acoeptlng their Senators and Repre- 
sentatives. 

But I must pause. The danger of the coun- 
try is not from military power. The great sol- 
dier who captured Fort Donelson and Island 
No. 10, and enabled Andrew Johnson, the hunt- 
ed refugee, to return to his home, commands the 
army for life. No St. Arnaud can order a par- 



12 



donecl traitor to his position. And having con- 
quered the rebellion on his own line, he will not 
permit the results of the people's dearly-bought 
victories to be treacherously surrendered by any 
but themselves. 

The Thirty-ninth Congress will maintain the 
Constitution in its integrity. It will do what 
it can, in spile of the veto power, to protect (he 
public faith and credit. It will invest the 
Executive with ample power to protect and 
avenge every loyal man in the country. It will 
Strive to guarantee to each State a republican 
form of government It listens to the appeals 
ol the survivors of (he brigade of loyal North 
Carolinians who responded to the appeal! of the 
gallant Foster, aud the Alabamiaus who fal- 
lowed Spencer through the war, andwill not 
consent to yield them helpless victims to the 
malice of the traitors who could not corrupt or 
overawe them. The evidence taken by the 
'•Central Directory" shows that there are such 



men throughout the South, and if they are 
to be abandoned to vengeance— if the South is 
to be closed against Northern emigration — if 
they and the public debt and properly — yes, and 
I may add, peace — are to be eonlided to the 
care of the master spirits ef I tie rel ellion, it will 
not be done by the thirty-ninth Congress. 

The cri.-is of oar country — perhaps the last \ 
great strain our institutions are (o feel — will be 
in the election of member.- to the Fortieth Con- \ 
gress. Neither Mr. Johnson nor the Mepbisto- 
pheles of the State Department will waive any | 
effort to give success to " my policy ;" but the 
people, true to Union and liberty at whatever 
cost of watchfulness and labor, will thwart their 
machinations. The President may pardon Jef- ' 
1'erson Davis, but the people can prevent him 
from leading Lee's army to the Canada line. 
New Hampshire has sounded "the, general," 
and the citizen soldiers of the Uepublic will 
drive the invaders back. 



SIRN 



